Trump Trial Day 2: Pecker Lays Out 'Kill' of Stormy Daniels Story

NEW YORK—The second day of the historic Donald Trump "hush-money" trial involving award-winning adult star Stormy Daniels concluded with Judge Juan Merchan not yet ruling that the former president violated a gag order. Prosecutors presented evidence that Trump has continued to defy the gag orders issued by Merchan to prevent the accused from intimidating witnesses and tampering with the jury. Attorneys for the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg pressed Merchan to hold Trump in contempt of court and levy fines totaling more than $9,000. A lawyer representing Trump, Todd Blanche, and his colleagues were admonished by Merchan for defending his client's supposed right to violate the gag orders. During a hearing on the gag orders, before witness testimony continued, Blanche said that “there was absolutely no willful violation” of the gag orders. Growing frustrated, Merchan said, "I keep asking you over and over to give me an example, and I’m not getting an answer." The judge then said to Blanche, “You’re losing all credibility.” But the real highlight of the day was when David Pecker, the former publisher of the tabloid National Enquirer, testified on behalf of the prosecution, explaining the scheme to catch and kill any story that would harm Trump in the 2016 election—notably, the fact that Daniels had an affair with Trump in 2006 and was paid off by Trump fixer and personal attorney Michael Cohen. According to Pecker, he had a meeting with then-candidate Trump in August 2015. During that meeting, Pecker and Trump reached an agreement for Pecker's outlet and its parent company, American Media Inc., to serve as an "eyes and ears" for the Trump campaign and inform Cohen of any potentially negative stories. This is the "catch-and-kill" scheme—pay for the rights to a hot story, kill the story, bury any evidence of it.  This arrangement, explained Pecker, resulted in two noteworthy events. First, in September 2016, Cohen was instructed to pay a hush money payment to former Playboy model Karen McDougal. McDougal maintains that she had an affair with Trump between 2006 and 2007. Reportedly, she was paid $150,000. Shortly after the release of the notorious Access Hollywood video featuring Trump and former disgraced host Billy Bush, Cohen paid $130,000 to Daniels through a former attorney in exchange for her being silent about the affair between herself and Trump that took place in 2006. Pecker also explained that he had a "decades-long" relationship with Trump before he even considered running in the 2016 Republican primary race. The former publisher added that he personally knows McDougal.  "Yes, I do," Pecker said in response to a prosecutor's inquiry about such. This affirms in the prosecution's case that Pecker knew of McDougal and that her story was targeted for the "catch-and-kill" scheme that would aid the Trump campaign. In 2018, the Wall Street Journal broke the story that in 2016 Cohen paid hush money to Stormy Daniels for her affair with Trump. This led to Cohen being indicted by federal authorities for tax evasion, campaign finance violations and other counts. McDougal's story was first reported by Ronan Farrow, the Pulitzer Prize-winner who helped take down Harvey Weinstein, in a 2018 piece for The New Yorker. Read AVN's coverage of the first day of Trump's trial here.